


Shifting Sands

by CrazyCatMeow



Series: The Meteor Effect [17]
Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: Bastet - Freeform, Cats, Claws, Gen, Lions, Vex - Freeform, Vex Magic, We have lore, Woodland mansion, convex, egyptian mythology - Freeform, evokers, fancy Books, fangs, lol, renthecat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:29:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25023955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrazyCatMeow/pseuds/CrazyCatMeow
Summary: Cub invites Scar to go to a Woodland mansion, while there they learn more of the meteor than they ever thought they would.Was previously named Riddles?
Relationships: Hahahaha... no
Series: The Meteor Effect [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1529078
Comments: 54
Kudos: 178





	1. It begins. (I feel like I i’ve already used this)

Scar grins as he flits around his drill, it’s getting better and better every day. Humming softly he lands on the enormous pile of shulkers, hearing his communicator beep he pulls it out to look at the notification.

It’s from Cub, the message reads, “I got a map for a woodland mansion, do you want to explore it with me?”

Flicking his wings Scar shoots up into the sky, he answers Cub saying that he would love to explore the mansion.

They decide to meet at the pyramids and go from there. Scar grabs a shulker filled with adventuring supplies and flies to the pyramids. Landing next to Cub Scar taps his leg, “Hi Cub!”

“Hey Scar,” Cub grins as he lets Scar settle on his shoulder, “You ready to go?”

“Yep.”

The pair take off towards the mansion. They bring cake and cookies to give to the Vex as offerings so the others in the mansion will leave them alone.

Landing on a tree around the mansion Cub sets up a base camp as Scar flits up to a window and looks in. An evoker spots him and looks at him curiously. 

“You don’t seem Vex yet you are?” The Evoker questions, opening a window inviting Scar in. 

“Something landed in the world and started changing players,” Scar explains as he lands on a bookshelf.

The Evoker nods, “We have a legend of something like that, it should be recorded in one of the books near you.”

“Thank you,” 

“Wait, are you by any chance one of the ConVex?”

“I am, My name is Scar and my friend Cub here as well. How did you know?”

“A few months ago all my Vex started buzzing about the ConVex arriving in the world chased by a great evil,” The Evoker nods before realizing something, “Is your friend still outside?”

“Yeah,”

“Why don’t you go get him? We can discuss this further in one of the meeting halls. I’ll find the book I was talking about and show it to you.”

Scar nods and flies out the window and lands on a bed next to where Cub is sorting through a few boxes, “Hey, they want us to go to one of the meeting rooms.”

Cub looks up from his box, “While you were inside, the communicators went off, it’s doing something again.”

“That’s actually what they want to talk about, they have a legend about the meteor.”

Cub’s eyebrows shoot up, “Really?”

The duo make their way into the front entrance and are met by a vindicator, who nods and leads them safely through the mansion and into a meeting room. There’s a pair of Evokers with five Vex floating near the ceiling. A pair of Vindicators stand guard outside the doors.

“Scar, thank you for agreeing to meet with us. I never introduced myself. My name is Aulë, I am the lead Evoker here and I am in charge of keeping the records.”

The other Evoker speaks up, “I am called Mairon, I am the second in command and I am in charge of the staff.”

“My name is Cub and we’re exploring.”

“Ok, I met Aulë. My name is Scar.”

Aulë nods and motions for Scar to sit in one of the Vex sized chairs on the table, “If you do not mind we would like to hear the story of what has happened to you and your friends.”

“Oh, Um, so in the last world, I was watching a meteor shower with some friends, and one hit really close to where we were standing. It hit one of my friends and he got affected first.”

Hearing this Mairon whispers something to Aulë, who responds with, “ I noticed as well we will discuss that later. My apologies please continue,”

Scar gives a confused nod then continues, “Not too long after Mumbo was effected I got affected, it shrunk me down and gave me wings. We found out that I can go through blocks later, ” As Scar recounts what happened to his friends the Evokers nod.

After Scar finishes Aulë asks a simple question, “You said that the first person affected got hit by the meteor?” At Scars nod he continues, “That isn’t the same as being affected, he wasn’t chosen. It was bad luck.”

Cub cuts in, “Let me get this straight, you’re saying Mumbo never truly got affected?”

“That is correct.”

“How do you know all this?”

“Simple, we have a book. It describes something much like your meteor. The story goes; In a kingdom, there lived vile and evil creatures that destroyed the land. The people lived in fear until one day someone made a deal. A deal with the head Vex. As you know the Vex are tricky and often twist what you want. When the deal was made it helped end the evil that plagued the land but it left the deal maker in a monstrous form. Doomed to wander the land.

Of course, he didn’t like this, he swore revenge on the ones who cursed him. For years he wanders the lands learning magic in hopes to get revenge. After years of training, he returns to the Vex. He was able to curse the entire race, the once proud and mighty Vex, tied to us Evokers as a summon. Before he could finish off the Vex they used most of their remaining magic to trap him. Encasing him in unpenetrable stone. The lord of the nether in attempts to help stop him for good launched the stone into space.

This is where the story gets a bit muddled, it’s rumored that he remained conscious and plotted his revenge on the ones that cursed him. It is widely believed that he would return and rec havoc,” As Aulë finishes telling the story Scar looks up at him.

“That’s a lot to take in,” Scar mutters.

Cub leans forwards one of the Vexes has floated down and settled on his shoulder. Fascinated by the gems attached, “Do you know anything else about the meteor?”

Mairon speaks up, “I believe you’re currently getting affected.”

Cub frowns and looks down at his hands checking them for any visible difference, “Are you positive?”

“Very,” Mairon states just before he plucks Scar off the table, holding him in his hand. Scar had already been told of what Mairon was planning so he goes along with it.

Cub stands up and glares at Mairon. His lips curling into a snarl, noticing this he stops and carefully sits back down as he releases Scar, “I think I see what you mean.”

“If it’s any consolation, I can tell you a bit of what’s happening?” Aulë offers, plucking a bit of Vex magic off the table and throwing it upwards towards the Vex who swarm over to it. He hands Scar a small bit as well.

Cub nods.

“I can’t tell you much more than this, it’s related to the thing that you are building.”

“Pyramid, so Egyptian. But with the mythology that can mean almost anything.”

Mairon nods in agreement, “Here, take this with you,” He hands Cub a book with Beautiful engravings on the cover. “We have many copies, it’s the story we told you.”

Cub and Scar stay talking with the Evokers for a while longer before heading back towards Cubs base. They fly past spawn island and decide to drop the book off.

When they get back to the pyramid Cub stumbles into his room and flops down on his bed.

Scar walks in too exhausted to use his wings and awkwardly clambers up next to Cub.

The pair sit in silence for a while longer before Cub breaks the silence, “Alive without breath, as cold as death, Never thirsty, ever drinking, all in mail never clinking?”

“Riddles? Ok, Um… fish?”

Cub nods from where he’s laying, “A box without hinges, Key or lid, but a golden treasure inside is hidden?”

Scar sits for a minute thinking, “Egg.”

They sit like this asking and answering riddles until they fall asleep.

………...

Two days later Xisuma calls a meeting, “I’m sorry for the short notice but I feel we need to go over this as a group.”

As usual, the hermits have gathered in the shopping district this time in the area in front of the town hall. Xisuma is standing near the portal, Grian is perched on top of one of the polling stations. Beef is laying with his legs curled leaning against a wall. The rest of the hermits are scattered around and are sitting on the ground, or in Scar’s case, he’s sitting on Beef’s back.

“I’ll start with going over what happened to Beef as we haven’t done that yet and we probably should,” Xisuma continues, “He’s been turned into some sort of centaur, as you can see,” At this, he Gestures over to Beef who flicks his tail awkwardly, Xisuma explains more about what happened to Beef before continuing, “I have a question for everyone, who has been affected. Have you noticed anything else that’s changed?”

Jevin, Grian, and Wels all raise their hands.

“Uh, I can absorb other slimes, as long as they're the same kind as me,” Jevin murmurs.

“I’ve noticed I’ll make more dragon-like noises,” Wels hums as he flares his wings.

Grian blushes slightly before he explains what happened, “So you know how some birds have the feathers that look like horns? If I fluff up my head feathers I can do that,” As he explains he puffs his feathers up and gains two clumps of feathers sticking straight up looking like horns.

Xisuma nods and continues the meeting, “Scar and Cub recently went to explore a woodland mansion. While there they discovered something rather unusual, a book. The Evokers have a story, it describes a man who learned magic that was capable to alter the Vex. It changed them from powerful magic users into what we see today. The man was so corrupted by power that they sealed him away in stone and he was thrown into space.

This along with other details matches up with The meteor. If you want more information we’ll pass the book around so everyone can read it,” Xisuma nods and ends the meeting.

Walking towards Mumbo, Xisuma pulls him away from the main Group and into the town hall, “I didn’t tell everyone this because I’m not sure if you would be ok with not getting a warning. While Scar and Cub were in the mansion they were told that you didn’t get truly affected and something else might happen.”

Mumbo’s face leeches of color and he swallows nervously, “I thought that what happened to me didn’t quite fit in but…”

Xisuma swiftly wraps Mumbo into a hug, his tail gently curled and spines flat against his back, “It’ll work out.” The pair stand there for a moment before Xisuma needs to go talk to Cub.

As he wanders around trying to find Cub, Xisuma hears a muffled sound, confused he turns to see what the sound is. When he pushes the door to the tavern open he sees, Cub. Who is holding a hand over his mouth.

“Cub! Are you ok?”

“Oh, Um, I think I’m growing fangs,” Cub answers with a heavy lisp.

“Let me see,” Xisuma clicks, as he carefully walks over.

Cub slowly removes his hand to show Xisuma the sharper teeth. There was a small bit of blood dripping from his lip.

Xisuma’s ear twitches from inside his helmet, “Let me see your hands?”

Cub holds his hands up and inhales sharply, his nails are changing shape into claws. As they change Cub watches transfixed.

Xisuma lets out a puff of air, “Let’s get you home.”

As the pair walk through the Nether Team ZIT is spotted messing around with the striders. Impulse and Zedaph have taken fire resistance potion so they can hang out in the lava. Tango spots Cub and Xisuma walking past and waves to them before promptly falling off a strider and into the lava.


	2. Lions and Cats?

As Cub and Xisuma exit the portal into the pyramid, Cub grunts in pain as he scratches his arm by accident.

Seeing this Xisuma’s tail flicks in sympathy, “You’ll be able to file them down once the meteor stops affecting you.”

“That’s, good,” Cub mutters inspecting the claws, “Yours aren’t filled down?”

“No, it’s easier for me to keep them, since I will walk on all fours sometimes they are handy to have and I have much stronger instincts than most people who get affected,” He explains.

Cub nods as he brings Xisuma over to a sitting area. The pair sit for a few hours and talk. Eventually, Xisuma heads home. Cub heads off and gets ready for bed. 

The next morning something is off, Cub notices his hearing is a little bit better than normal. Reaching up to feel his ears, he isn’t met with the expected flesh. No, instead he’s met with soft fur.

Growling slightly he stands up and wanders over to the nearest mirror. His ears have most definitely changed. Instead of the normal fleshy human ears, his ears have elongated into some sort of cat ears. They extend about six inches above his head. They are a sandy tan on the insides and around where they attach to his head. Stretching from where his normal ears would have been to about a third of the way up his head. Most of the back of the ears is covered with black fur with a stripe of white running across the middle.

He facepalms and grabs his communicator to call Scar. As he struggles to type because his claws get in the way, a loud clatter draws his attention. His ears swivel around towards the source of the sound. Looking around for it Cub discovers a zombie pigman had wandered into his base.

Carefully he ushers the piglin back into the nether. Rolling his eyes he decides not to call Scar, it wasn’t like his ears are causing him any problems. So he decides to keep working on the interior of the pyramid. 

As the day progresses Cub starts to notice something slightly off. His balance, it wasn’t normal, he keeps nearly stepping backward off the scaffolding and leaning forwards more. After a while, he decides to go get some lunch.

As he makes his food he frowns softly, his lower back is beginning to hurt. Not a lot, but enough for it to be noticeable. Brushing it off as nothing Cub continues to work.

He keeps going until night. He changes into pajamas and falls asleep almost instantly. As the night slowly passes something begins to change. His tailbone grows, it stops when it reaches his knees. It grows the same sandy fur as the base of his ears and small leopard-like spots.

Upon waking Cub immediately feels the difference and stumbles to his feet. He finds his balance fairly easily as his body was already behaving like it had the tail. He messages Scar telling him about the tail. He replies saying he’ll be over right away.

………..

“Are you telling me you forgot?” Scar asks doubtfully, “How can you forget that your ears are like that.”

“I didn’t really think about it,” Cub responds still with a little bit of a lisp.

Scar smiles and flutters down from where he was perched on a stack of chests and lands on Cub’s head, “I still don’t see how that’s a valid response.”

Cub shrugs, “Yeah, I don’t know.” 

In a multi-toned voice, Scar laughs, his Green eyes flashing blue, “That’s crazy!”

Raising an eyebrow Cub asks, “Vex?”

“At your service,” Vex Scar chips as he floats swirling around Cub’s head, “We thought it would be best to give you a warning of what is to come.”

“Are you going to tell it to me in a riddle or something?” Cub hisses confused.

“Well… we could, but since it’s already happening we can interfere a bit more.”

“Ok, so tell me?”

“In time, young one,” The Vex states, “We can’t just tell you right out, there are still rules. Besides other things need explaining. We can’t currently possess you as the meteor holds claim over you whilst you’re changing. Also, you need more Vex food, you aren’t getting enough magic.”

Cub facepalms, “I haven’t really had a good opportunity to get much.”

“Well, Scar gets enough… Anyways you need to be careful. The meteor knows that you know what he is, so it’s going to ramp up some of the transformations. As for you, you’re going to get a few more instincts. Well, it's more like enhancing your Vex tastes into a broader range. As for what’s happening now-”

“Now?”

“Yes now, weren’t you listening. You're currently in the process of turning into a lion, which is kind of odd considering your ears and tail is that of a serval. We’ve gone head and lessened the effects for you.”

By this point Cub is clearly able to notice the difference, He’s slowly being covered by a layer of sandy fur, his jaw is changing shape slightly, “Lessened the effects?” He asks, his lisp becoming a lot more noticeable and words begin to slur together.

“It was going to fully turn you into a lion, without human knowledge, you would still recognize your friends as friends but not much else. You’d be able to turn back but it wouldn’t last long and you would be forced back into the lion after a few hours of being human. With what we’ve done it’s a whole lot cuter and better for your mental state.”

“Do I want to know what you mean by that?”

The Vex giggles, “Well, probably not, but we weren't going to tell you anyway. I’m running out of time in Scar’s body, so we will tell you this. If we need to interfere as we did with you we can. Bye!”

Scar floats to the floor where he flops over, “That was a lot of information.”

Cub suddenly loses his balance and falls to the ground.

Eyes wide, Scar plucks up his communicator and sends a frantic message to Xisuma asking him to come over.

Seeing the frantic message Xisuma flyes over right away. By the time he gets there Cub is in the final stage of transforming.

He looks to be about a nine months old lion cub. He appears to be almost full-grown and has the beginning of a mane growing in a scruff of fur around his neck. 

“Oh, goodness, how did this happen?” Xisuma asks, as he carefully kneels down next to Cub.

Scar flutters up and lands on Xisuma’s helmet grabbing onto one of his horns to help keep his balance, “It was the Vex. The meteor has some form of sentience and doesn’t like the fact that we know who he is. It was going to turn him into a full adult lion without his memories. The Vex decided to intervene and change up what happened.”

“So, he’ll have his memories?” Xisuma asks, not really following what Scar is saying.

“He’s going to keep his memories and he will get to choose when or if he turns,” Scar explains his wings folding neatly against his back.

By now Cub is struggling to his feet and is growing softly as he continues to fall, taking some pity for him. Xisuma starts walking around him on all fours. The fur on his arms bristling slightly.

Watching him intently Cub rolls on to his feet and staying low to the ground takes a cautious step. He wobbles a little bit and takes another. In no time, he’s able to walk around. A small clatter draws his attention from following Xisuma to a small red dot on the ground.

He pounces at it, toppling over and landing on his back.

Scar’s laughter can be heard echoing off the walls.

Xisuma stalks over to where his brother is standing and gently smacks him with his tail and takes the laser and sticks it in his pocket.

“Hey, why’d you do that?” 

“Because he’s just figuring out how to walk and we don’t know how his instincts are in that form.”

From where he is laying Cub hums loudly. Clearly growing rather uncomfortable with the change. He slinks out of the room and into his room, where he huddles under the bed.

Scar carefully crawls under the bed and talks to him for a moment. When Scar re-emerges he explains to Xisuma what he thinks is happening, “There’s no instincts helping him walk, or anything so he doesn’t want to stay like this, he wants to turn back, but that’ll probably take a few hours.”

“You know this how?” Exy asks leaning over Xisuma’s shoulder.

“Vex magic!” Scar explains grinning, “They’ve been teaching me spells and I learned one that lets me talk to animals.”

“That’s really cool,” Xisuma says, baring his fangs slightly behind his helmet.

………...

Almost three hours later Cub turns back, “I never want to do that again.”

“You won’t have to,” Xisuma says as he helps Cub onto his feet. At one point the Vex had Reappeared and explained to Xisuma what was happening. Xisuma relays this information, bids farewell and heads to spawn island to assist Doc in setting up more cameras.

As Cub wanders into his kitchen he wrinkles his nose, “What is that?”

“What’s what?” Scar asks from his perch on the countertop,

“Something smells really bad,” He mutters, pulling his collar up over his nose.

“I don’t smell anything.”

Cub shudders, “Ug, it's like rotten flesh but worse.”

“You have some in that chest over there,” Scar jerks his thumb over to a chest in the corner. 

Cub facepalms in realization, “I think my nose got all messed up.”

Scar bobs in the air, “That could make sense,” he muses.

Cub carefully gathers up the zombie flesh and chucks it into some lava.

In a flash Scar accidentally hits the ceiling as he startles in realization, “ Cub, didn’t the Vex say something about your Vex traits getting enhanced”

“Yeah…”

“Look at this,” He pulls out a Diamond and holds it in front of Cubs face.

Cubs eyes go wide, “I think you’re right.”

Scar grins and hands him the gem, “It’ll probably happen with other gems and gold.”

Laughing Cub grins as he licks at the gem, “Do you have any Vex magic? They were right, I am really low on magic.”

With an eerie grin Scar hands Cub some Vex magic and a very familiar mask, “Shall we?”

“We shall.”

A few hours later the ConVex grin as they look over what they had done. Ren’s StarWars themed base has been transformed into a gigantic cat playground.

“This is fantastic!” Scar giggles as he lands on one of the gigantic puffballs.

Cub grins, his fangs glinting slightly in the moonlight, “Let's leave before he wakes up.”

Nodding Scar scatters a few more bits of Vex magic as the pair fly into Larry the snail.

The next morning the entire server is woken by Ren spamming the chat.

Ren The Dog: Xisumaaaaa, can you come to my base?

Ren The Dog: they are back.

IJevin: Who’s back

Ren The Dog: ConVex, they got my base

Ren The Dog: Same thing as last time,

Xisuma: Ren I’ll come over, 

Ren The Dog: It has the same effect on me from last time as well.

Grian: what’s going on?

Zedaph: Ren, do you mean Ren Cat is back

Ren The Dog: Unfortunately yes,

Tango Tek: Zed, where are you? 

MumboJumbo: That can’t feel good since you’re actually part dog now.

Zedaph: I’m with the herd?

Ren The Dog: it's not fun.

CubFan135: that sucks my guy.

GoodTimesWithScar: I wish you luck

Ren The Cat: why are you like this?

ImpulseSV: You need to trim your wool, you blend in with your sheep too much.

Ren The Cat: And who changed my name!

Xisuma: It fits you better, also I’m at your base.

  
  


As Ren wakes up he notices something off, as he sits up he stretches. His tail swaying softly as he stands. As it brushes against his leg he startles. Instead of the thick fur that normally covers it, there is a thin layer of what looks to be cat fur.

Cautiously reaching his hand up he brushes his fingers against his ears, freezing he lets out a quiet growl. Walking outside he sees what he has subconsciously been dreading. 

His base has been turned into a gigantic cat playground. He grabs his communicator and messages Xisuma asking him for some help.

By the time he arrives at his location, Ren is distracted by one of the scratching trees. He’s rubbing up against it, sharpening his claws looking absolutely miserable.

“You ok?”

“Meh, I didn’t know, I want to clean this up and get back to normal… but I can’t stop playing with everything.”

“I’ll start cleaning this up, you do what you want while I get started and come help me after an hour.”

As Xisuma starts picking up random bits of Vex magic and cat food cans. Ren is completely preoccupied with one of the hanging puffballs, a goofy smile plastered on his face.

As more and more of the cat toys get removed Ren’s ears and tail slowly return to normal. As the hour runs out Xisuma walks over to Ren. He’s on the top of a cat tree completely passed out. Xisuma smiles and cleans up the rest of the cat stuff leaving the tree he’s sleeping on. 

On his way back to his base Xisuma drops off a shulker of Vex magic at Scars village.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that’s a rap folks.
> 
> I hope y’all have enjoyed reading this.
> 
> Impulse is up next.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y’all have enjoyed reading this.


End file.
